Uefa's attempt to control broadcasting rights for international football could prove costly. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

A promise to underwrite huge increases on the value of England, Germany and Spain's broadcast rights looks set to cost Uefa dearly, just at the time it needs cash to head off a breakaway by elite clubs.

Last December Digger revealed Uefa plans to centralise the sale of broadcast rights for European Championship and World Cup qualifiers from 2014. It has guaranteed improvements on rights deals for each of its 53 member associations; for some it will amount to a 60% rise. With England and Germany earning more than £100m each for individual deals with national and international broadcasters and Spain, Italy and Holland adding around £230m between them, experts say the total earned by the 53 associations exceeds £750m. (Even Scotland, with its 5.2 million population, says it earns £50m from its broadcast arrangements.) But in a less lucrative broadcast climate than when such deals were signed, several market insiders told Digger the true value of the 53 associations' rights is now closer to £500m.

The commercial worth of the Euro 2016 qualifying tournament, the first to be centralised, is also questioned since 24 of the 53 entrants will reach the finals, up from 16, affecting competitiveness and attractiveness to viewers. Yet Uefa is committed to improving on existing deals and it could be forced to underwrite a shortfall of more than £300m from its reserves.

At the end of the 2009-10 accounting period, its most recently available, Uefa held €705m (£614m) in cash and cash equivalents but was facing potentially hundreds of millions of pounds of operating deficit until its next event, Euro 2012. Depending on the shortfall arising from the new rights sales against what has been promised, this could become an enormous drain on Uefa's funds. Since Uefa's cash hoard serves as a buttress against any breakaway, the recent talk about "revolution" means Uefa can ill afford to tap into it now.

Happy to serve Bath City

At a time when a parliamentary inquiry into football governance has aired calls for more diversity, Bath City have become the highest-ranked club to be run by a woman. Manda Rigby said: "My business acumen and knowledge of football are the equal of any man. However, my style may be slightly different, and certainly I want to be as inclusive as possible." She added: "I intend to watch the first half of home matches in front of the tea bar and help out when necessary – I will be requesting hot Vimto!" The former UK & Ireland managing director of the computer-components maker Netgear has more about her than pouring tea.

Age before performance

The obstacles to reform at the Football Association are not entirely surprising, and the objections from Roger Burden, pictured, to diluting the blazers' influence in decision-making structures, cited here, are not his sole preserve. After all, some of his peers on the FA council have accrued almost half a century's service. Although an upper-age limit of 75 was introduced after the Burns review in 2005, those above the limit who joined the FA before 1990 were granted reprieves and may retain their positions until infirmity, dementure or death. The longest serving, Nottinghamshire's William Annable, joined in 1967 and is 78. Edward Powell of the Herefordshire FA joined a year later and was 86 when he died this summer [see footnote]. Men like these might reasonably be accustomed to doing things in a certain way. But whether that way is right for football is quite another matter.

Grounds for concern

West Ham United trumpeted on their website a barrister's report exonerating them for putting the Olympic Park Legacy Company employee Dionne Knight on their payroll. That they did so before the OPLC's decision to award them tenancy rights to the Olympic Stadium in favour of Tottenham Hotspur has rather exercised Spurs, who will go to the high court to renew their plea for a judicial review this month. The unnamed barrister who produced the report was from Blackstone Chambers and though undoubtedly "independent", his fees seem to have been paid by West Ham. Blackstone Chambers, meanwhile, is a sponsor of the London 2012 Olympics.

Fans don't want Fáb

Cesc Fábregas wants Barcelona so much it hurts – hence his "muscular injury". But do Barcelona really want him? Not if you go by a poll on the website of El Mundo Deportivo, the Spanish newspaper best connected at Barça. More than 17,000 respondents have delivered their verdict on what should be the composition of the blaugrana midfield in the coming season. El Mundo offers 12 different three-man-midfield permutations drawing from Fábregas, Sergio Busquets, Xavi, Andrés Iniesta, Thiago Alcántara and Javier Mascherano. And once the 68% who favour Busquets-Xavi-Iniesta have been counted it is clear there are not many who crave Cesc in the first team. The 8% who want Mascherano, Xavi and Iniesta reduce it still further. In the end only 18% of the votes featured Fábregas, and these in five broadly disfavoured midfield compositions (the 9% wanting Busquets-Xavi-Fábregas being the most notable). So he appears to be far from a marquee signing at Camp Nou, in fact it seems Barça fans would take him when Iniesta is injured but are otherwise they are just not that fussed.

• This footnote was appended on 4 August 2011. The original said that Edward Powell is 86. The Football Association (FA) informed us after publication that Edward Powell sadly died earlier this summer, and they will be updating their website accordingly.